Since 1970, the ocean has warmed 40 percent more than previous estimates, according to climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, one of the authors of the study.

The study examined four new or updated Ocean Heat Content records — a fancy term for measuring how warm the ocean is, taking into account deeper water, not just surface temperatures — and finds the ocean warming is significantly higher than estimated in the last comprehensive report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2013.

Ninety-three percent of the excess heat trapped in the Earth’s system by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions is stored in the oceans. If it weren’t for this ocean buffer absorbing so…